This invention relates to a system wherein a car position is transmitted to a hand held locator, such that the operator will be able to more easily find a vehicle when parked. Modern vehicles are provided with a number of electronic features. As one example, many modern vehicles are provided with a GPS navigation system which provides some information with regard to approximate location of the vehicle. This information can provide an approximate address for a location of the vehicle.
Further, most vehicles are provided with hand held key fobs which include a number of electronic commands for the vehicle. As an example, the key fob will command the vehicle doors to lock and unlock.
One deficiency with modern vehicles, is there has been no practical way of storing the location of a vehicle when parked in a large parking area. As an example, when a vehicle is parked in a large parking lot, there is no practical way of providing information to the vehicle operator of where the vehicle is parked. Similarly, if parked on a city street, there has been no simple way of providing the operator with feedback of where the vehicle was parked.
In a disclosed embodiment of this invention, information with regard to the location of a vehicle is transmitted to a hand held locator when the vehicle is parked. As one example, the hand held locator may be a key fob; however, other hand held devices may be provided with this function. In one embodiment, when the key fob is actuated to lock the vehicle doors, the vehicle sends a signal to the key fob of the location of the vehicle. In one simple embodiment, the information transmitted to the key fob may be GPS navigation system information. This information will prove sufficient if the vehicle is parked on a city street, as the information should provide accurate information of approximate address. However, with modern GPS navigation systems, there is no reference point in a large potential parking area such as a parking lot.
Thus, in a second embodiment of this invention, localized position locating transmitter may be positioned at locations around a city, or in a particular parking area. Those local positioning transmitters will provide the vehicle with an indication of its location within a parking lot, or other potential large parking area. Then, when the position information is transmitted to the hand held locator, it is this localized information which is downloaded to the hand held locator. The technology utilized to receive, interpret and then transmit this information can be similar to that utilized for GPS navigation systems. Further, the technology necessary to provide these local transmitters is also within the skill of a worker in this art. It is the application of such a system which is inventive here.
Further, as GPS databases increase in detail, it may well be that they will be able to provide information on particular parking lot locations. Further, the local transmitter such as mentioned above could be a local GPS correction device. GPS systems are known which have reference points located around a particular area. The reference points allow a GPS navigation system to pinpoint the reference points, and thus adjust the location of the vehicle by working from the known reference point. This feature, and in particular in combination with increased detail in the databases, will provide the ability to display specific information about the location in a parking lot.
These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description.